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8 hours ago, utilitus said:

Am in the process of designing a house in SJC which will have city water and sewer, but supplemented with such systems on a small scale, should city facilities fail, plus a 10k lt water tank also connected to rooftop rain capture.  Carefully positioned solar panels designed in, rather than pasted on.

10 K isn't much. I had about 50,000. And a neighbour had a 60,000 and a 70,000 lliter. The latter two collected rainwater from roofs. 

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32 minutes ago, cedros said:

10 K isn't much. I had about 50,000. And a neighbour had a 60,000 and a 70,000 lliter. The latter two weas collected rainwater from roofs. 

That's good general advice, but my situation is based on my current experience here in Mendocino, even now in the middle of a draught.  In SJC I have a small, steep view lot and all the other buried tanks and hardware previously mentioned have to be configured carefully.  This is the point, to integrate into and supplement the function of municipal utilities and, in the case of water harvested from a 150 sq mt roof with a lot of plants forming a serious rooftop view garden, to have the ability, if necessary, to buy water off a truck using concealed, built in ports and pipes, to pump water back up, for example, such energy expenditure ideally involving intermittent municipal pressure.  

Rooftop water harvesting and ambitious storage are obviously key features that should almost always be design defaults .

@ 100/gal day p/p, typical of the US, storage of over 400k lt/yr would be required for three persons, unless they resorted to the combo sombrero-bidet involving wash cloths described above, a perfectly reasonable solution if you only have a liter a day.

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The single biggest waste of water is the demand heater. They were sold as a solution for expensive gas but cost way more in wasted water, especially where water is a problem. I have swapped the instant on for a tank type and the water is warm at the most distant outlet. It has never been with the demand heater. Any savings in gas is more than offset by the lack of water.  I always had plenty of hot water in the states with a tank heater. The very best help is to insulate the pipes in the brick stucco walls, they suck the calories out. You will probably have to bring the 1/2" or 3/4" insulation from the USA.

https://www.homedepot.com/s/1%2F2%22%20pipe%20insulation?NCNI-5

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Largest round underground plastic tank is 10,000 liters. Its about 8 ft diameter and 8 ft tall.  Tank must be half buried (4 ft) in ground to support tank properly. (Do not ignore this or tank will collapse under pressure, Water weighs over 18,000lbs) You also need to make a foundation for the tank. I used concrete. Tanks larger than this must be made of bricks. It was a 2 ton truck that delivered the plastic tank.  Anything larger probably would not fit in truck.  Rolling the tank across the yard was fun.  These tanks are heavy and no place to hang on. You also have to make sure you have a big enough gate to get tank onto property.  Probably about the same cost to have a tank built but it would take much longer. Added a 1/2 HP pump to hose  and you don't have to worry about watering plants anymore. It can also be used to fill my under driveway tank if they turn off the water for multiple days or help the neighborhood.

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21 hours ago, Bisbee Gal said:

And much of the science out there is that it is healthier for your skin and hair not to shower daily. 

https

I had a guest who was Filipino and had been raised in Canada since she was 6. I asked her what time of day she likes to shower, as I keep the hot water heater turned down until 15 min. before until I or one of my guests showers. She laughed and said Filipinos don't feel the need to shower daily unless they've gotten dirty or sweaty and that she finds Americans' and Canadians' obsession with showering every day or even twice a day to be ridiculous.

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16 hours ago, geeser said:

The single biggest waste of water is the demand heater. They were sold as a solution for expensive gas but cost way more in wasted water, especially where water is a problem. I have swapped the instant on for a tank type and the water is warm at the most distant outlet. It has never been with the demand heater. Any savings in gas is more than offset by the lack of water.  I always had plenty of hot water in the states with a tank heater. The very best help is to insulate the pipes in the brick stucco walls, they suck the calories out. You will probably have to bring the 1/2" or 3/4" insulation from the USA.

https://www.homedepot.com/s/1%2F2%22%2we save0pipe%20insulation?NCNI-5

I'm not sure I follow this.  We find it takes the same time for the hot water to get to our kitchen or MBR the same with either the tank heater or the demand heater we have now and we save a bunch on gas, like 50 percent.  

If electricity wasn't so expensive the best solution would be an electric demand heater wherever hot water is needed IMO.

 

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2 hours ago, lcscats said:

Largest round underground plastic tank is 30,000 liters. Its about 8 ft diameter and 8 ft tall.  

Lest someone fixate on such figures, my dark green 2600 gal (@ roughly 10k lt) US style Rotonics water tank is just about 8 x 8 ft. 

 V = π r^2 h

They make these quality tanks in various formats, and at least 50% more voluminous, such as my neighbors' @ 12 ft tall, a freestanding specimen, on a pad foundation - cost about US$3k.  Don't know if these branded products are available in Mexico, but I think I once saw a small one in a hardware store in Ajijic.

 

5000 Gallon Green Plastic Water Tank

 

 
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2 hours ago, utilitus said:

Lest someone fixate on such figures, my dark green 2600 gal (@ roughly 10k lt) US style Rotonics water tank is just about 8 x 8 ft. 

 V = π r^2 h

They make these quality tanks in various formats, and at least 50% more voluminous, such as my neighbors' @ 12 ft tall, a freestanding specimen, on a pad foundation - cost about US$3k.  Don't know if these branded products are available in Mexico, but I think I once saw a small one in a hardware store in Ajijic.

 

5000 Gallon Green Plastic Water Tank

 

 

Yep you are right and I am wrong. I was giving total water storage on property as I have other tanks and a pond.  I have corrected errors in my posts.  Beware I have a huge gate and I had to take down part of the electric fence to get it into the property. Only other option was a crane.  I can't imagine getting a tank with a bigger diameter onto a property or maybe it would be too wide for a truck.  

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7 hours ago, lcscats said:

Largest round underground plastic tank is 10,000 liters. Its about 8 ft diameter and 8 ft tall.  Tank must be half buried (4 ft) in ground to support tank properly. (Do not ignore this or tank will collapse under pressure, Water weighs over 18,000lbs) You also need to make a foundation for the tank. I used concrete. Tanks larger than this must be made of bricks. It was a 2 ton truck that delivered the plastic tank.  Anything larger probably would not fit in truck.  Rolling the tank across the yard was fun.  These tanks are heavy and no place to hang on. You also have to make sure you have a big enough gate to get tank onto property.  Probably about the same cost to have a tank built but it would take much longer. Added a 1/2 HP pump to hose  and you don't have to worry about watering plants anymore. It can also be used to fill my under driveway tank if they turn off the water for multiple days or help the neighborhood.

My neighbour used a plastic one and it collasped. I have seen a few collpased plastic ones.  I had mine made of brick-much stronger and you can make it as large as you want. People often have them built under where they plan to park their car. Effecient use of space and strong.

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13 minutes ago, cedros said:

My neighbour used a plastic one and it collasped. I have seen a few collpased plastic ones.  I had mine made of brick-much stronger and you can make it as large as you want. People often have them built under where they plan to park their car. Effecient use of space and strong.

I installed a 22,000 liter white plastic aljibe in Ajijic about 5 years ago. It is under my garage.  

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6 minutes ago, mudgirl said:

Probably the collapsed ones were just backfilled with dirt instead of having an underground wall built around them.

So you build a wall of brick or concrete and then put a plastic tank inside it. It sounds like a plastic lined brick aljibe. Probably easier to clean.

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5 minutes ago, cedros said:

So you build a wall of brick or concrete and then put a plastic tank inside it. It sounds like a plastic lined brick aljibe. Probably easier to clean.

Definitely easier to clean a plastic tank than a brick one. If you just backfill with dirt, the part of the tank that's empty will just collapse from the pressure of the dirt on it. Especially in rainy season when the ground is wet and heavy.

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I was waiting for someone to mention collapsed ones but I had only heard about that on the coast so had no experience here. The box with base IS necessary IF there is any chance at all for your aljibe to become empty during the rainy season. Ground water pressure can be immense. Yes, the plastic is easier to clean but, if it ever cracks (think ground tremor), then it's an absolute b!tch to remove. With a real cistern made of cement and bricks, you can just empty it and send in a guy to re parge the inside. YMMV.

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21 hours ago, Mostlylost said:

I installed a 22,000 liter white plastic aljibe in Ajijic about 5 years ago. It is under my garage.  

My future neighbor in SJC has this installation, and it seems like a logical location (so long as automotive oozing don't contaminate anything).  It would be expensive overkill from a water/sewer management perspective, but if local zoning lakeside limits homes to two stories, can well-engineered structures add full basements below grade (which is kind of hard to define at a 25 degree slope), suitable for both general use and facility location and operation.  My lot is so small that a fancy cantilevered foundation is planned anyway...   TIA 

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2 hours ago, utilitus said:

My future neighbor in SJC has this installation, and it seems like a logical location (so long as automotive oozing don't contaminate anything).  It would be expensive overkill from a water/sewer management perspective, but if local zoning lakeside limits homes to two stories, can well-engineered structures add full basements below grade (which is kind of hard to define at a 25 degree slope), suitable for both general use and facility location and operation.  My lot is so small that a fancy cantilevered foundation is planned anyway...   TIA 

Many aljibes are under garages.

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16 minutes ago, MeToo said:

Is there a reason that folks don't have wells drilled on their property? The water table shouldn't be too deep.

You aren't just free to drill a well. The federal govt. owns all water rights in Mexico. You have to apply to do so, it's a bureaucratic process, it costs money, and may or may not be approved.

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42 minutes ago, MeToo said:

Is there a reason that folks don't have wells drilled on their property? The water table shouldn't be too deep.

Each exisiting well (that had to be approved by Conagua at some point) has a circular exclusion zone around it where no wells can be drilled.

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7 hours ago, MeToo said:

Is there a reason that folks don't have wells drilled on their property? The water table shouldn't be too deep.

You might be able to pay for a government well to be drilled, with permission,  on your property, if you lived kilometers from a source, but certainly no where along the north shore towns.

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